'Germans can't cope if something goes wrong'

It was another time, in the dying days of war, but thousands of football fans will soon be able to judge for themselves whether guidance to British soldiers in 1944 still holds true.

The Germans are brutal when they are winning and sorry for themselves when they are beaten, it said.

They have unbalanced minds and can fly into a rage if things go wrong, it continued.

Germany: 1944, the British Soldier's Pocketbook, which was issued to tens of thousands of troops, provided a potted history of the country, a guide to local customs and a rundown of the national psyche.

The 46-page booklet, which will be published by the National Archives next month, gives a unique insight into how British wartime leaders viewed the enemy.

They thought it essential to warn troops that the Germans "don't know how to make tea" and added, in a sideswipe, which has since been comprehensively discredited, that "football is entirely amateur".